We posted on a recent independent report out of California that said the state’s plan for high-speed rail makes no sense. An excerpt:

State analysis slams high-speed rail plans
Some excerpts:
Among the recommendations, the report calls for:
• The state Legislature to reject the $185 million in state funding the project calls for this year for consultants and public outreach and approve only $7 million.
• Passing legislation this session that would shift responsibility from the High Speed Rail Authority to the California Department of Transportation.
• Re-evaluating where the first segment of the line is built – perhaps a more densely populated area with enough ridership to financially support the line.

The key, it seems, is that last bullet point. The state went to the Dept. of Transportation and asked to use the federal grant money on a segment of track that has a shot at being profitable, but was declined:

Rejecting the recommendations of a recent state report, federal officials said Wednesday they cannot postpone the deadline to start construction of California’s $43-billion bullet train project or allow the state to move the first leg of the proposed system out of the Central Valley.
U.S. Department of Transportation officials said the 2012 deadline is required by federal legislation that provided about $3.1 billion in funding for the project’s initial leg, which, they added, was placed in the state’s agricultural heartland after considerable study.
“This shows that we are on the same page as the feds,” said Jeffrey Barker, a spokesman for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. “They are saying no to these huge recommendations. This takes them off the table.”
Earlier this month, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office concluded in a detailed critique that the project was poorly managed, faced potential long-term funding problems and had a governing structure in need of sweeping reform.
Until those issues could be addressed, analysts called on the rail authority to push back its federally required construction deadline and consider relocating the initial segment to a major urban area where there was more potential for trains to run sooner.
Analysts further recommended that the Legislature not spend any more money on the project if the federal government did not allow the changes in the route and construction schedule.
Rail officials plan to build the first section of the 500-mile system between Bakersfield and the tiny town of Borden in Madera County. The initial leg, which would pass through Fresno and Corcoran, has been criticized as a “train to nowhere” because high-speed trains would not operate on it until the route could be extended to major population centers.
In a letter to the rail authority, the Transportation Department stated that general appropriations law and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act require that construction begin in 2012, the last year the funds would be available.
The Transportation Department “has no administrative authority to change this deadline and does not believe it is prudent to assume Congress will change it,” wrote Roy Kienitz, a department undersecretary. “We recommend that policy makers in California proceed on the basis that this deadline will remain fixed.”

In other words, we don’t care that this $3.1 billion will likely be wasted. If you don’t build your choo-choo by 2012, you lose the cash.

Here’s hoping the California legislature kills this project before any more money is wasted.